Airborne Pollen Transport

Sofiev, M.; Belmonte, Jordina; Gehrig, Regula; Izquierdo, Rebeca; Smith, Matt; Dahl, Åslög; Siljamo, Pilvi

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4881-1_5

Cited by 64 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 191 publications

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“…suggests that the majority of the signal for grass pollen consists of a mixture of atmospheric transport processes on a micro-(below 2 km), meso-gamma and mesobeta scale. From a modelling point of view, this has been identified as one of the major challenges to understand and describe with respect to airborne pollen transport (Sofiev et al, 2013). This highlights the importance of studying local sources and also supports our hypothesis about urban gradients in grass pollen concentrations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Identifying urban sources as cause of elevated grass pollen concentrations using GIS and remote sensing

et al. 2013

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We examine here the hypothesis that during flowering, the grass pollen concentrations at a specific site reflect the distribution of grass pollen sources within a few kilometres of this site. We perform this analysis on data from a measurement campaign in the city of Aarhus (Denmark) using three pollen traps and by comparing these observations with a novel inventory of grass pollen sources. The source inventory is based on a new methodology developed for urban-scale grass pollen sources. The new methodology is believed to be generally applicable for the European area, as it relies on commonly available remote sensing data combined with management information for local grass areas. The inventory has identified a number of grass pollen source areas present within the city domain. The comparison of the measured pollen concentrations with the inventory shows that the atmospheric concentrations of grass pollen in the urban zone reflect the source areas identified in the inventory, and that the pollen sources that are found to affect the pollen levels are located near or within the city domain. The results also show that during days with peak levels of pollen concentrations there is no correlation between the three urban traps and an operational trap located just 60 km away. This finding suggests that during intense flowering, the grass pollen concentration mirrors the local source distribution and is thus a local-scale phenomenon. Model simulations aimed at assessing population exposure to pollen levels are therefore recommended to take into account both local sources and local atmospheric transport, and not to rely only on describing regional to long-range transport of pollen. The derived pollen source inventory can be entered into local-scale atmospheric transport models in combination with other components that simulate pollen release in order to calculate urban-scale variations in the grass pollen load. The gridded inventory with a resolution of 14 m is therefore made available as supplementary material to this paper, and the verifying grass pollen observations are additionally available in tabular form

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Identifying urban sources as cause of elevated grass pollen concentrations using GIS and remote sensing

et al. 2013

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“…(Sofiev et al, 2013). However, in our study, most of the pollen sampled showed less than 10% of its area occupied by particles and therefore the scavenging process can only be considered significant when extremely high airborne pollen concentrations are reached (Sofiev et al, 2013). Daily variations in the physical characteristics of particles adsorbed to airborne pollen cannot be attributed to pollen size variations between the studied days since no statistical significant differences were observed among each pollen type's size.…”

Section: Tablecontrasting

confidence: 50%

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 71%

Characterisation of particulate matter on airborne pollen grains

Ribeiro

Guimarães

Duque

et al. 2015

Environmental Pollution

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“…Geels et al [27], Hertel et al [39]), and is considered usable for urban scale calculations of aeroallergens once urban scale maps of aeroallergen sources have been produced [25]. By combining local and regional scale processes and explaining the near source distribution of pollen by the use of models, the current study addresses one of the major challenges in the understanding of airborne pollen transport [40].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of exposure to airborne <i>Ambrosia</i> pollen from local and distant sources in Europe – an example from Denmark

Sommer¹,

Smith²,

Šikoparija³

et al. 2015

Ann Agric Environ Med.

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Background. Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. is a noxious invasive alien species in Europe. It is an important aeroallergen and millions of people are exposed to its pollen. Objective. The main aim of this study is to show that atmospheric concentrations of Ambrosia pollen recorded in Denmark can be derived from local or more distant sources. Methods. This was achieved by using a combination of pollen measurements, air mass trajectory calculations using the HYPLIT model and mapping all known Ambrosia locations in Denmark and relating them to land cover types. Results. The annual pollen index recorded in Copenhagen during a 15-year period varied from a few pollen grains to more than 100. Since 2005, small quantities of Ambrosia pollen has been observed in the air every year. We have demonstrated, through a combination of Lagrangian back-trajectory calculations and atmospheric pollen measurements, that pollen arrived in Denmark via long-distance transport from centres of Ambrosia infection, such as the Pannonian Plain and Ukraine. Combining observations with results from a local scale dispersion model show that it is possible that Ambrosia pollen could be derived from local sources identified within Denmark. Conclusions. The high allergenic capacity of Ambrosia pollen means that only small amounts of pollen are relevant for allergy sufferers, and just a few plants will be sufficient to produce enough pollen to affect pollen allergy sufferers within a short distance from the source. It is necessary to adopt control measures to restrict Ambrosia numbers. Recommendations for the removal of all Ambrosia plants can effectively reduce the amount of local pollen, as long as the population of Ambrosia plants is small.

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Airborne Pollen Transport

Cited by 64 publications

References 191 publications

Identifying urban sources as cause of elevated grass pollen concentrations using GIS and remote sensing

Identifying urban sources as cause of elevated grass pollen concentrations using GIS and remote sensing

Characterisation of particulate matter on airborne pollen grains

Risk of exposure to airborne <i>Ambrosia</i> pollen from local and distant sources in Europe – an example from Denmark

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